Jake’s mind struggled to regain its lucidity but failed and failed again. His mind drifted through his memories he remembered meeting his daughter, Charlotte, in a building painted in blood and Charlotte hiding in a tub of blood, coming out for air once in a while.

He was holding a flame thrower and carrying a back pack; he and his squad mates had killed the little bats and were searching for survivors. Charlotte told him how his wife, Laura had died the previous day. Rage and frustration filled Jake as he cried and kicked whatever he saw in the room.

Time waits for no one, but it seemed as if time had always been avoiding Jake. His job caused him to leave his family for long periods of time so he wasn’t always there for his kids. They became detached and he always wanted to find time but event after event happened that caused him to be away.

Now he was staring into the lifeless eyes of his 15 year old daughter who had seen too much violence and blood for someone her age. Charlotte never really liked him, unlike David who looked up to him; she saw his perfect and exemplary achievements in the military as useless since she wasn’t interested in such.

Jake asked about David and Charlotte told him how he died. Although Jake wanted to find the people who killed his son he had a more important mission now; protecting Charlotte. It was really disappointing that all his skills and combat experience was useless to his wife and son since they died before he could reach them but Charlotte was still here, and he was going to die before she did.

Jake said “I’m sorry, I couldn’t make it in time but don’t worry. Me and my guys will kill the bats and secure this place”. Charlotte responded with silence, she wasn’t so thrilled about being alive, she just didn’t want to waste her mom’s sacrifice.

On seeing her silence Jake looked out the window and saw a swarm of bats covering the sky, dyeing it red as they approaching their location from every direction. He realized ‘They’re way more than we thought!’

The bats were swiftly approaching, the noise Jake and his squad mates had caused while killing the bats they saw. Jake thought of a quick solution, he brought out a plasma machete from his back pack and cut the tub free from the concrete that held it to the floor.

His squad mates were all finding their own ways to hide from the horde of bats. The room they were in was on the ground floor and Jake gave Charlotte some bombs and they stuck them on the walls of the room and threw unopened grenades on floor, close to the walls of the room. The area was getting darker as the bats got, closer blocking out the light from the sun.

Jake turned the tub upside down, spilling the blood that filled it and told Charlotte to hide underneath it. He opened and threw flash bangs (Light and sound grenades) all around the room before going under the tub with Charlotte.

The flash bangs went of releasing bursts of light and sound attracting a great number of bats. Jake brought out a remote from his pocket and waited until he heard the bats surge into their room some seconds later. The bats attacked the metal tub, denting it with their tiny claws and teeth until Jake pressed the button on the remote.

The bombs on the walls went off and the building ceiling of the room collapsed on the bats and on the grenades close to the wall, breaking them and causing them to explode. The whole building trembled and cracks appeared on it before it crumbed inward crushing the bats to death.

Jake and Charlotte woke up some days later as Original Vampires.

Jake’s eyes opened as he looked at Homo Azard that was puking from over eating. His head had regenerated during the time the monster was puking but Jake knew that the blood in his heart was about to finish. He laughed at the puking Homo Azard without getting up, he realized ‘It has only discovered two Aura manifestations. So it has no other solution apart from eating me, it must be so hard for it’

Jake knew that he couldn’t escape the Homo Azard so he just laid down as he thought ‘I guess it’s my time. I really want to check if Charlotte is ok but I don’t think this guy will let me’. Jake closed his eyes as he remembered his most beloved memory; after he proposed to his wife, Laura.

They went back to a karaoke house and Jake sang a very old song. Jake sang the song with a smile on his face and he relived the memory as the Homo Azard walked back to him.

“If I could save time in a bottle”

“The first thing that I’d like to do”

“Is to save everyday”

“Till eternity passes away”

“Just to spend them with you”

As Jake sang a small plant made of aura grew from the ground above his head. The Homo Azard didn’t seem to see it as it kept its pace while approaching Jake.

“If I could make days last forever”

“If words could make wishes come true”

“I’d save everyday like”

“A treasure and then”

“Again I would spend them with you”

The plant swiftly grew into a large old tree with a worn bark and branches full of leaves. The Homo Azard only seemed to notice the situation at that moment. It dashed toward Jake who was completely oblivious of the phenomenon as he kept singing.

“But there never seems to be enough time”

“To do the things that you want to do”

“Once you find them”

“I’ve looked around enough to know”

“That you’re the one I want to go”

“Through time with”

The Homo Azard appeared before Jake ready to bite his head when time seemed to stop and a root from the tree wrapped around it. Time continued at a slower pace as the Homo Azard slowly brought its face close to Jake’s head while opening its mouth.

Jake’s eyes widened in surprise as he only now noticed what was happening. Jake slipped away from under the Homo Azard and stood up beside the tree. He sensed a tremendous amount of his own aura coming from the tree but he also sensed another aura in the tree, one that he couldn’t place.

The Homo Azard bit into empty air and swallowed it before the teeth of the Homo Azard started falling out and its exoskeleton started cracking. But the time the Homo Azard lifted its head again it looked like it had aged a millennia.

The Homo Azard slowly turned its head toward Jake and got up trying to reach him. It slowly got up and the root of the tree didn’t restrict it as it bent easily like it was a rope.

The Homo Azard got into the position for a dash but it fell slowly to the ground as Jake’s IP told him ‘You have killed a Rank 20 Homo Azard’. Jake’s eyes widened in surprise when he heard the notification, the corpse of the Homo Azard decayed until it turned to dust and the tree vanished.